In the Field with Josh Johnson

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 You're listening to Comedy Central.

Speaker 4 Welcome back to The Daily Show. It was tax day this week, but some people, and this is crazy, don't like paying taxes.

Speaker 4 And one of them is our own Josh Johnson.

Speaker 5 It's long been known that in America, the rich often don't pay their fair share of taxes.

Speaker 7 By exploiting a complex tax system filled with loopholes, the richest 1% pay a lot less than the average taxpayer.

Speaker 8 But how do they do it?

Speaker 6 And could I learn their tricks to help out the everyday taxpayer like you and I? I spoke to tax expert Robert Wood of Tax Form Wood LLP to find out the easiest ways to dodge the IRS. His first tip?

Speaker 3 Real estate,

Speaker 3 big tax shelter. So generally speaking, you write off a piece of the building every year.

Speaker 9 So on like this year, I'll claim the bathroom.

Speaker 11 And then like the next year, I'll claim.

Speaker 3 But just to clarify, you only get to do this if you own the building, not that you work here.

Speaker 10 That is all

Speaker 9 very interesting, but I do not own the building.

Speaker 9 So

Speaker 10 back to square one.

Speaker 3 Charity is another one.

Speaker 9 So let's say I start a charity and my charity will be real,

Speaker 13 very real, okay?

Speaker 6 My charity of broke ass audits.

Speaker 14 Like you getting audited.

Speaker 9 Let's break off your broke ass a little cash, right?

Speaker 3 There are lots of people who've gotten in trouble with fake charities.

Speaker 10 So that won't work.

Speaker 3 Churches are qualified charities, which is why some people have tried to start their own churches.

Speaker 9 So if I start my own church, I mean, how many followers are we talking?

Speaker 10 I don't think they call them followers, but I don't know.

Speaker 9 Oh, that's right.

Speaker 10 That's like a cult thing.

Speaker 3 Another thing that wealthy people do,

Speaker 3 you've got art. How much is it worth? Donate it to charity.
And if you donate it, how much can you fairly write off?

Speaker 10 I have some artwork that I want to show you. And don't hold back.

Speaker 3 Okay. No offense, but I mean, it looks kind of infantile.
My guess is it's not worth very much. You need to talk to somebody who's a qualified art appraiser.

Speaker 9 I was really banking on the art thing working out.

Speaker 3 You're just not there yet, Josh.

Speaker 9 This was not looking good for my tax return, but there had to be something.

Speaker 3 One of my great tax planning secrets for you today is dying. If you own stock or if you owned a house at some point, hang on to it.
It's the doing something with it, selling, that triggers tax.

Speaker 3 Then when you die, it's never taxed. So dying turns out to be tax efficient.
That's something that wealthy people count on.

Speaker 9 That's deferring, right? Yeah. Couldn't I just defer till I die?

Speaker 10 Yeah. Okay, so kill myself.

Speaker 9 That's great, great advice.

Speaker 3 I want you to die generations from now. Thank you.
It's a better tax deal, anyways. Wow, okay.

Speaker 9 I do have a quick question for you then.

Speaker 9 Since the rich are deferring on all these assets and they've hired tax lawyers to make sure that it stays complicated and they're less likely to get audited, who is paying tax?

Speaker 3 Regular wage earners. I mean, everybody pays tax if they've got income.
And the wealthy people are paying tax too.

Speaker 3 But if you look at their income versus how much tax they're paying, they're typically paying a lot lower rates.

Speaker 9 So if we all learn the tax law and we all start doing these things, how will like roads get built?

Speaker 3 Good question.

Speaker 3 Somebody at the lower end has to be paying the regular taxes to make room for the government to do those things.

Speaker 9 Just don't be poor.

Speaker 10 Okay.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 3 That's terrifying. The more you know about tax, the more terrifying it can be.
That's why I don't sleep very much

Speaker 9 so whether i become rich or just die at least i know how to avoid my taxes like a millionaire i may

Speaker 9 i do actually need your help picking this up this is like all the money that i have yeah i don't really i'm not taking it no no i didn't think you were going to take it

Speaker 5 New Yorkers disagree on a lot of things.

Speaker 17 Yankees versus Mets, pizza toppings, whether you can poop on the subway or not.

Speaker 11 But now there's one thing ripping New Yorkers apart more than ever.

Speaker 19 Congestion pricing is official.

Speaker 5 Drivers are now paying to drive south of 60th Street.

Speaker 18 I had to pay the congestion pricing.

Speaker 5 How do you feel about it?

Speaker 8 Not too happy. Fing cars or fing congestion?

Speaker 20 Congestion price.

Speaker 8 F ⁇ cars. F ⁇ both.

Speaker 21 F the cars.

Speaker 19 I don't like the idea of all those New Jersey people being taxed so heavily.

Speaker 17 Do you think that maybe it should go the other way?

Speaker 5 Maybe New York should have to pay $9 to get into Jersey.

Speaker 8 Absolutely not.

Speaker 19 Nobody wants to go to Jersey unless they have to.

Speaker 18 We need cars.

Speaker 22 Yeah, because cars are very important.

Speaker 17 Because as a New Yorker, how else are you going to get where you need to be?

Speaker 20 Besides the subway or the bus or a bike or like a pedicab or the horse-drawn carriage, scooters, Segways.

Speaker 17 Motorblades are

Speaker 17 in again. Solo wheels, piggyback rides, you know, some nice walking, walking with a purpose.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 17 We need more options.

Speaker 11 You know?

Speaker 21 They need the money for the MTA. It's supposedly raised $15 billion a year.
So, you know, I definitely feel okay

Speaker 21 for the city doing this.

Speaker 18 What type of improvements have you made to the MTA?

Speaker 7 Regular service that's completely reliable.

Speaker 17 Teleportation. Teleportation is actually way more likely than the regular service.

Speaker 1 The first thing I would love to fix is that we have lights everywhere. I don't have to be afraid to walk in a dark tunnel when I get off the work at night.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I would also like to have them have some people maybe help the people that I see walking around naked.

Speaker 24 I'm very sorry about that.

Speaker 17 That was me, and that was a hot day.

Speaker 5 I mean, maybe they could use some of them, might put like some glaive plug-ins in the subway cars. That'd be a huge improvement right there.

Speaker 21 I'm guessing because of the crime rate in the subway is probably not the number one priority is my guess.

Speaker 17 But if I'm being mugged on the subway and it also stinks, that's two bad things happen to me at the same time. I want to get robbed somewhere clean.

Speaker 21 Yeah, I think hygiene is important.

Speaker 17 One of my biggest hopes is that with less cars, with less congestion, right, it'll make Eric Adams trying to get away from the feds

Speaker 20 a much cooler chase. There you go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he'll be like, talking like born supremacy level chase.

Speaker 17 So, I mean, less cars means less noise. Who would have thought with less noise, I can finally hear jackhammers, I can hear sirens, I can hear like you're and screams and stuff.

Speaker 7 Yeah, but that's uh that's that's that's you know, that's showing love in New York. Say you so you know, I walk around, I say you to this camera, you, that's showing love.

Speaker 17 Yeah, a good, a good you lets you know not only are you in New York, but you're really alive.

Speaker 19 Yeah, before we part ways,

Speaker 19 you

Speaker 8 too, yeah,

Speaker 7 Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris was a boon for her campaign with women. But a lot of people say she still needs to do better with men.

Speaker 5 So I'm here outside one of the bastions of masculinity, a gym, to talk to real men about which celebrity endorsement would move the needle for them. Hopefully, I don't get mistaken for Terry Cruz.

Speaker 5 What celebrity endorsement carries the weight for you that like a Taylor Swift would carry for women?

Speaker 13 Do they have to be alive or...

Speaker 8 Alive would help.

Speaker 5 Alive is probably one of the most important things that they could be.

Speaker 25 Because the first thing I said was Prince.

Speaker 26 If Prince came back from the dead and was like, my man, you gotta vote for Kamala, would that move the needle for you?

Speaker 13 Absolutely.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 25 Why? Because you just saw a ghost?

Speaker 7 What about some non-paranormal endorsements?

Speaker 12 Is there a male celebrity that would make you vote for Kamala Harris?

Speaker 8 Kendrick Lamar. Maybe LeBron.
He's a big guy. I feel like LeBron can move the needle a little bit.

Speaker 13 Okay. Probably Travis Scott.

Speaker 17 Travis Scott.

Speaker 24 Those celebs were so 2024.

Speaker 7 How about some throwbacks?

Speaker 25 I would say Peyton Mannon, Peyton Manning, Deion Sanders, Deion Sanders, Deion Sanders, and

Speaker 8 Celine Dion.

Speaker 8 That's my girl, you know what I mean?

Speaker 26 Celine Dion. Yes.

Speaker 5 So everyone that you've mentioned.

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 23 And Celine Deion.

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 18 And it doesn't matter to you that she's Canadian.

Speaker 8 No, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 11 So what male celebrity endorsement would move the needle for you?

Speaker 27 Probably Michael Jai White.

Speaker 13 Michael Jai White, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 All right, and why is that?

Speaker 27 He works out, I work out, you know.

Speaker 27 I have to sit down and like really think for myself.

Speaker 23 Look at the issues, look at the candidates, and then maybe of Michael Jai White.

Speaker 27 Maybe. We got to sit down together and chit-chat.

Speaker 22 Yeah, all right. I feel like you just try to beat Michael Jai White now.

Speaker 8 None of that.

Speaker 8 Sure, he's tough.

Speaker 14 He's talented.

Speaker 17 He got killed by the Joker.

Speaker 24 I get it.

Speaker 14 But maybe I could prove to these swole voters that they could look to me for political guidance.

Speaker 8 There you go.

Speaker 13 Men.

Speaker 22 So, when it comes to bench press, right now I'm hitting like a clean 125.

Speaker 25 That's pretty good, right?

Speaker 8 Fantastic.

Speaker 8 Really? Yeah. Oh, okay.

Speaker 22 That's good news for me.

Speaker 24 Are there any male celebrities, right?

Speaker 8 And we don't have to be talking about A-lists.

Speaker 16 They could be in front of you right now in this moment whose opinion means something to you.

Speaker 8 Quite a long pause.

Speaker 14 Clearly, he was intimidated by meeting such a famous and yoke celebrity, IRL. So I decided to change the subject to the candidates.

Speaker 7 What do you think Tomo Harris would have to do to appeal to more men?

Speaker 8 If she agreed to a boxing match with Logan Paul, what do you think that would do? Would that move the needle for her? I think if she knocks him out, no doubt. Wow, okay.

Speaker 8 Knock him out cold, drag him out the ring. All right.
President.

Speaker 6 Round after round, he kept coming back to the same question about masculinity.

Speaker 23 Like, is Trump like a man's man to you?

Speaker 8 No, he's not.

Speaker 23 Not really?

Speaker 24 He's not an honest person.

Speaker 8 Gotcha. And that's a big part of being a man to me.
Being vulnerable, admitting your mistakes.

Speaker 22 So if I'm vulnerable with you right now,

Speaker 23 that's manly. Yeah.

Speaker 21 Okay.

Speaker 16 I may have fibbed earlier with the 125.

Speaker 5 It's really 115.

Speaker 8 It's okay. I knew.

Speaker 25 You knew?

Speaker 23 Now, does Trump seem manly to you when you think about like a man's man?

Speaker 27 I'm being honest, the reason why I respect what he says sometimes because he speaks his mind.

Speaker 23 So, for you, it's speaking your mind that's like the manly thing that you like.

Speaker 27 Yeah, because he tells you straight up, you know?

Speaker 23 Yeah, so you like that Trump lets you know from far away.

Speaker 8 Far away. Hey,

Speaker 23 I'm crazy.

Speaker 8 Yay.

Speaker 16 At the end of the day, it seemed like the only way to get some men to vote for Kamala might be to trick them into it.

Speaker 5 What if they put a 45-pound kettlebell on the lever to vote for Kamala Harris?

Speaker 25 Do you think more guys would do it?

Speaker 8 What would do it? Yeah. Put a sign that says like

Speaker 8 like try and try and pull this. You know what I mean? Oh.

Speaker 18 Don't even tell them the way.

Speaker 23 Just be like, I bet you can't.

Speaker 8 There you go. Yeah.
I bet you can't. Okay.
Yeah.

Speaker 27 Bet you can't.

Speaker 18 That should be the slogan.

Speaker 8 Kamala, bet you can't. I bet you can't.

Speaker 18 I mean, it might, if you don't understand the context, look pretty bad.

Speaker 23 Just say, Kamala Harris, bet you can't.

Speaker 23 That's that needs to pretty much

Speaker 8 context. Yeah.

Speaker 8 What up, world?

Speaker 18 It's Josh Johnson, full-time Daily Show correspondent and full-time black guy. But more than that, I'm also a part-time voter.

Speaker 18 Now, black voters have been the backbone of electing Democratic presidents since Bill Clinton went on Arsenio.

Speaker 5 In fact, 91% of black voters voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and 92% voted for Joe Biden last election.

Speaker 22 So why does this year feel

Speaker 8 different?

Speaker 24 New polling shows 23% support among black voters for former President Trump. That's up 19 points since the 2020 election.

Speaker 7 Contrary to popular belief, not all black people know each other. So in order to find out how all black people felt about Trump, I got six from the tri-state area to ask, do we f ⁇ with Trump?

Speaker 12 Okay, so who will you be voting for in 2024? Darryl. Do I have to say his name?

Speaker 8 I don't want to, but more than likely it's gonna be Trump yeah unbelievable

Speaker 12 who are you gonna be voting Biden and then Victor I'm with her oh Biden okay Trump Eric Trump Biden Biden Trump okay we're an even split

Speaker 13 which

Speaker 12 I did yeah I didn't see that coming

Speaker 8 so do you think there's gonna be a big shift any sort of change I think it's gonna be a big shift me too big shift yes

Speaker 8 really okay for me I've always been a Democrat and it's like,

Speaker 8 for the most part with the Democratic Party, they always make a bunch of promises that they can't deliver.

Speaker 28 You know, they use the issues of the African-American community as a soapbox to stand on and make promises, you know, just to get us to come out and vote.

Speaker 28 And then once we vote and everyone's in place, it's like, well, what happened?

Speaker 12 Would you say it's anything like

Speaker 12 Somebody's in your DM and they're really laying it down to take you over here?

Speaker 6 Girl, I'll take you to the top.

Speaker 12 You know what I mean? And then you finally go on the date and it's Burger King.

Speaker 8 Or you can get it. And then you get fished.

Speaker 12 If the polls are right and Trump is going up with black voters, what changed?

Speaker 8 I wish I knew. I am not a huge fan of Trump.
He doesn't respect the black person. And Biden does.

Speaker 28 Has Biden issued an apology for the things that he's been caught saying?

Speaker 8 He said, if you don't vote for me, you're not black. You're not black.

Speaker 8 What is that?

Speaker 5 They have both said things that were questionable and unsavory but when you start looking at facts it's like biden you done drop the ball brother okay so some black voters feel let down by democrats but i wasn't sure if they knew about how trump likened himself to black americans so i showed them some footage of trump at the black conservative federation gallery i'm being indicted for you the black population I wanted to play a little game, all right?

Speaker 13 Now, the game is going to be either fist or finger, right?

Speaker 15 If you like what's happening, you're gonna put up your black fist.

Speaker 6 Now, if you don't like what's happening, there's a finger.

Speaker 25 Y'all ready?

Speaker 8 We're ready. Okay.

Speaker 2 Good.

Speaker 2 These lights are so bright in my eyes that I can't see too many people out there.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I can only see the black ones. I can't see any white ones.

Speaker 6 You see?

Speaker 7 That's how far I've come.

Speaker 7 That's how far I've come.

Speaker 8 I can't find it. I have dark human.
I have dark humans. That's the problem.

Speaker 13 I'll play the next clip for you real quick.

Speaker 2 Black conservatives understand better than most that some of the greatest evils in our nation's history have come from corrupt systems that try to target and subjugate others. You understand that.

Speaker 2 I think that's why the black people are so much on my side now because they see what's happening to me happens to them.

Speaker 8 He had me at the first question. I mean, the first time.
He messed up. And then he messed up at the end.

Speaker 12 So, okay, keep, can we get our signs up?

Speaker 20 So,

Speaker 15 the same again.

Speaker 12 Okay, let's go on to the next clip real quick.

Speaker 2 But I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing. And a lot of people said that that's why the black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against.

Speaker 2 And they actually viewed me as I'm being discriminated against.

Speaker 2 It's been pretty amazing.

Speaker 12 All right, so kind of still along the same party lines. Now, do you think Trump is being discriminated against?

Speaker 8 Not at all.

Speaker 12 It's not one side. It's the legal system.
No matter who you are, if you do these things, you get charged for it.

Speaker 29 That's it.

Speaker 30 There are two systems of justice.

Speaker 30 We cannot get away with the same thing white folks get away with.

Speaker 12 But with this different sort of accountability system, does it feel like Trump is bad at being white?

Speaker 2 Because 91.

Speaker 30 I noticed how when I was incarcerated, right,

Speaker 8 how

Speaker 30 The white incarcerated people seemed to be more angrier than the black incarcerated people. Trump is like the same thought pattern.
This ain't supposed to happen to me.

Speaker 30 I'm not supposed to be indicted. People are not supposed to tell me I committed a crime because I am privileged.

Speaker 5 Damn, I had no idea the appeal process for incarcerated white people was gaslighting.

Speaker 7 But Trump is fighting close to 100 felony charges.

Speaker 16 How much of a criminal is too much of a criminal?

Speaker 12 If more charges get racked up, maybe things that start to become a bit more egregious, is that going to start to weigh on whether or not you're going to change your vote?

Speaker 28 You start, you pay attention, you listen to the facts, not the fluff, and then you actually have to start doing some research to make sure that what's being presented to you is actual facts.

Speaker 28 And it takes some digging.

Speaker 8 Okay, so if you dug and you did your research and you found out what Josh just said was true, would that swear you're voted? Probably not.

Speaker 12 I definitely, you know, did not sit down with this panel to change any minds, and I clearly have not.

Speaker 8 Clearly.

Speaker 7 So, yeah, I guess some black folks do fump.

Speaker 5 But was there anything I could get this panel to agree on?

Speaker 8 Can we keep these? This is so useful in everyday life.

Speaker 8 I'm thinking of saying

Speaker 29 explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 29 Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

Speaker 28 Paramount Podcasts.

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart Podcast.